Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tender Is the Night, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Excess, Destruction, and the Failed American Dream
Gender, Mental Illness, and Psychiatry
The Pursuit of Youth and Innocence
Racism and Otherness
Summary
Analysis
Pulling into the harbor in New York, Dick is initially stunned by “the magnificent façade of [his] homeland.” The feeling vanishes, however, as he travels to Buffalo and later to Virginia with his late father’s body. Dick is glad that his father can be buried among relatives but feels that, with this last tie to America broken, he will not return again. Dick bids farewell to his homeland, saying, “Good-bye, my father—good-bye, all my fathers.”
Dick’s many years in Europe have left him feeling estranged and removed from America, his homeland. Besides, he no longer embodies the American dream, or any of the values he stood for as a younger man. Dick says his sorry goodbyes to his father, and bids farewell to the American founding fathers at the same time, both physically and emotionally departing from his familial and cultural roots.
Themes
Boarding the ship back to Europe, Dick feels as if the pier exists in a strange space between the past and the future. On the boat he bumps into Albert McKisco, who has become a very successful writer since Dick last saw him. McKisco’s fame and accomplishment were due, in part, to his duel with Tommy, which gave him “a new self-respect.” Indeed, Dick finds McKisco far less irritating than before, and even enjoys his company. Violet is changed too: happier, well dressed, and more charming than before.
While Dick has experienced physical and emotional decline, McKisco—who was once considered unfashionable and vulgar—has risen to fame. The McKiscos’ new wealth has probably opened up new social circles for them, and Violet certainly looks the part now. Fitzgerald reflects the societal shifts underway with regard to classes during this period—money made previously fixed class-boundaries much more fluid.
Themes
Disembarking from the ship in Naples, Dick is overcome by a strong desire to feel admired and finds himself taking a lost mother and her two daughters under his wing on the train to Rome. He drinks too much in order to sustain the various illusions he has invented about them, but watches, “with pleasure,” as they regain their confidence.
This passage is another example of Dick’s father-complex and need to help and protect women around him. His self-worth is deeply connected to feeling needed and wanted.
Themes
Arriving at a hotel in Rome, Dick spots “the person he had come to see, the person for whom he had made the Mediterranean crossing.” Rosemary, startled, hurries over immediately, telling Dick that she’s in Rome to shoot a new movie. She is beautifully groomed, and Dick hopes that she won’t notice his disheveled appearance.
The reader learns that Dick has made this trip for Rosemary. Several years have passed since he saw Rosemary—who is still beautiful—and he is keen to appear new, fresh, and charming for her despite his recent decline.
Themes
Get the entire Tender Is the Night LitChart as a printable PDF.
After he has slept, washed, and eaten, Dick turns his thoughts to Rosemary. He concedes that Rosemary is “young and magnetic, but so [is] Topsy.” Longing gets the better of him, however, and he summons all he possesses that might attract her to him once more. He wants “to hold [Rosemary’s] giving-of-herself in its precious shell till he enclosed it, till it no longer existed outside him.” Preparing himself to meet Rosemary, Dick gets dressed and does a handstand in his hotel room “to limber himself up.”
Disturbingly, Dick draws a comparison between his young daughter and Rosemary, describing them both as “young and magnetic.” Dick has a strong and potent desire to take Rosemary’s “giving-of-herself”—her virginity—and to make it his own. He wants to possess her, so that her virginity and innocence will be his forever. Perhaps, this way, he will be able to feel young and hopeful again.
Themes
On his way to meet Rosemary, Dick bumps into Collis Clay at the bar. Collis tells Dick that Rosemary is now “a woman of the world,” insinuating that she has had her fair share of romantic experiences since Dick last saw her three years before. “Believe me,” says Collis, “has she got some of these Roman boys tied up in bags!” Dick leaves to find Rosemary.
Collis suggests that Rosemary is not as innocent as she seems to be, implying that she has been a bit of a seductress, and perhaps that she is less valuable as a result. This depiction of Rosemary’s is acutely sexist since it equates her worth as a person with her sexuality. Still, this no doubt this makes Dick jealous, and so he rushes to meet her.
Themes
